This episode Mike and Will put on their dancing shoes and head out to the lawn, only to encounter The Man with the Roller by E.G. Swain!
Massive thanks to podcaster Jim Moon of hypnogoria.com for letting us use extracts from his reading of this story in the episode! You can listen to the full reading, as well as all Jim’s other E.G. Swain readings here.
Note: we realised after recording that the repeated references to dancing on the lawn ire probably a bit of black humour regarding Andrew Birch who, being hanged, clearly did some ‘dancing’ of his own in relation to his activities on the lawn!
Notes:
- E.G. Swain (Wikipedia)
There is rather scant information about E.G. Swain available online, but his wikipedia page is a good place to start.
- The Stoneground Ghost Tales (Project Gutenberg)
This story and all the others in the volume can be read and downloaded for free here.
- Stanground (Google maps)
The real-world Stoneground can be found just outside Peterborough. The church is much as Swain would have known it. The rest of the village, not so much, but these historical maps can give you a good idea of what it was like before the modern housing and industrial estates took hold.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe:
This episode explores some ecclesiastical terrors in R.H. Benson’s ‘The Traveller’. It was ‘too ecclesiastical’ for M.R. James, but will Mike and Will find something to enjoy in this tale of perturbed priests, creepy confessionals and historical haunting?
Thanks to our reader for this episode Debbie Wedge!
Show notes:
- Robert Hugh Benson (catholiceducation.org)
Benson was ordained a priest by his Archbishop father in 1895 before sending shockwaves through the church by converting to Catholicism in 1904, the year after this story was published.
- The Light Invisible by R.H. Benson (Gutenberg)
The volume that this story appears in can be read in full online at Project Gutenberg.
- Frederick Rolfe (wikipedia)
Benson’s close friendship and literary collaboration with the eccentric Frederick Rolfe (the self-styled ‘Baron Corvo’) threatened to derail Benson’s religious career.
- Thomas Becket (wikipedia)
Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury from 1162 until his murder in 1170. During his life he quarreled with King Henry II over the rights of the church, and was made a saint after his death.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe:
This episode Mike and Will indulge in murder, moralising and supernatural goat-based mayhem in A.C. Benson’s ‘Out of the Sea’.
Big thanks to our reader for this episode Debbie Wedge, and don’t forget to check out her M.R. James-themed t-shirt designs, ‘No diggin’ ere‘ and ‘Barchestering‘!
Notes:
- A.C. Benson (Wikipedia)
A.C. Benson was one of MRJ’s closest friends throughout his life. They attended prep school, Eton and King’s College together, worked together in later life and remained regular correspondents right up until Benson’s death in 1925.
- ‘Out of the sea’ (full story – Project Gutenberg)
You can read this story online, or download as a free ebook at Project Gutenberg. The story features in Benson’s 1904 collection ‘The Isles of Sunset’.
- Wreckers (wikipedia)
In this episode we speculated that Mister Grimston might have been involved in ‘Wrecking’, the act of luring passing ships into dangerous waters to sink them so their cargo could be stolen.
- A.C. Benson and Cambridge (Ged Martin)
An extended essay about A.C. Benson that touches on his whole life at Cambridge, as well as his relationship with his father and his mental health.
- Why is the Devil also a goat? (Refinery29.com)
This article explores why goats became associated with evil in both religious symbolism and popular culture.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe:
